Adhesions are typically formed in response to mechanical/surgical insult. They are a well documented post-surgical event. It is known to ameliorate the condition by introducing film-forming biocompatible agents into the body cavity around the area of the wound. However, we have found surprisingly that adhesions can also occur in patients suffering from ovarian cancer who receive chemotherapeutic agents via the i.p. route. In other words the adhesions are not formed in response to post-operative events. We believe that it is the chemical insult of the chemotherapeutic agent itself, rather than the possible mechanical injury by i.p administration that induces adhesion formation in these patients. These unexpected observations, we believe, are due to an inflammatory response in these patients to the drugs which they receive. The present invention seeks to provide a composition for use in preventing adhesions that are formed as a result of the inflammatory response.
The treatment of patients with inflammation has two primary objectives, the first being to relieve pain which is typically the presenting problem, and the second is to reduce/halt the tissue-damaging process. Conventional treatment for acute and/or chronic inflammation is to administer non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or glutocorticoids, however administration of these classes of pharmaceutical can cause undesired side effects in some individuals and even dependency.